UN Envoy Stuck In Coffee Shop After Being Threatened By Armed Men In Crimea

A Crimean flag hangs over a barricade at the Crimean parliament building in Simferopol February 27, 2014. Armed men seized the regional government headquarters and parliament on Ukraine's Crimea peninsula on Thursday and raised the Russian flag in a challenge to the country's new rulers.
REUTERS/Baz Ratner
The United Nations said Wednesday that U.N. envoy Robert Serry was threatened by armed men in the Crimean region of Ukraine.

Robert Serry is now on his way to the airport after police forced a way through an angry crowd of Russia supporters who were blocking his exit from a cafe.

U.N. Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson told reporters that Serry was threatened by unidentified armed men who said he should leave Crimea. Eliasson said Serry tried to get in his car, but the unidentified men prevented his car from leaving. He went to a cafe, where he called Eliasson.

According to ITV News' James Mates, Serry is still in the coffee shop. The armed men — "local militia" — are blocking the exit and shouting "Putin! Putin!:

UN special envoy Robert Serry with me in coffee shop. Outside local militia block the door. #Ukrainepic.twitter.com/pbotNqCG3i— James Mates (@jamesmatesitv) March 5, 2014

Mates also tweeted a photo of the "local militia" outside the coffee shop:

View of militia from inside coffee shop where UN envoy Robert Serry is blockaded inside pic.twitter.com/ojbAruMzyW— James Mates (@jamesmatesitv) March 5, 2014

The strategic Black Sea peninsula is currently occupied by Russian soldiers and pro-Russian "defense forces" who have surrounded all key Ukrainian military facilities and set up roadblocks.